With the announcement of WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 comes increased interest in the new “Liberty Profile.”

The Liberty Profile is available for all server platforms supported by WebSphere Application Server V8.5 itself. The configuration and operations of Liberty Profile is very similar across those supported platforms, but not entirely. Liberty Profile for z/OS provides a set of extensions that take advantage of unique features and functions of the z/OS platform itself.

Specifically, Liberty Profile for z/OS provides the following z/OS-specific functions:

SAF — the use of Security Access Facility (SAF) for user authentication and keystore services.

WLM — the use of z/OS Workload Manager (WLM) to classify work and assign specific service and reporting classes within a Liberty Profile server instance.

JDBC Type 2 and RRS — the use of cross-memory connectors into DB2 along with global transaction synchpoint coordination provided by Resource Recovery Services (RRS).

MODIFY — the use of the z/OS MODIFY command to initiate and process SVC and transaction dumps for a Liberty Profile server.

In anticipation of questions about how Liberty Profile is configured and operated on z/OS, and how to take specific advantage of the z/OS extensions, a “Quick Start” guide has been created that provides an easy path to success with Liberty Profile. The Quick Start Guide takes the reader through a progression of directed exercises, from simple to increasingly sophisticated, to illustrate how the Liberty Profile works on z/OS as well as how Liberty Profile may take advantage of the unique z/OS extensions provided.